Robotic Snakes – The World

Living beings without limbs, like snakes, are capable of traversing any terrain. In particular, rattlesnakes can climb uneven surfaces and steep desert . So far this ability, known as sidewinding, had not been implemented in robots.

Several experiments, performed by a group of researchers from the University of Georgia, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and Zoo Atlanta-and published this week in the journal Science reveal how works mechanism serpents ‘SUV’ getting simultaneously robots mimic the movement .

“At first we thought to use the robot as a physical model to learn from the snakes,” says Daniel Goldman, professor (USA) Technological College of Physics Georgia. “Through the simultaneous study of both, checked important general principles that allowed us to understand the animal and improve the robot “.

According to these observations, the scientists found that snakes in contact with a sloping, unstable surface such as sand elevations are increased the length of his body, according to the inclination of the surface, they did so to a greater or lesser extent.

“The serpent up some body segments while keeping others on the ground, as the slope is more inclined, your body is flattened, “says Howie Choset, a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon.

To determine movement patterns, the team investigated the robot and snakes in a circular beach . In this area, built in Zoo Atlanta, placed six types of snakes that use this movement to see how they climbed the mounds of sand in different inclinations. They calculated how much sand penetrated , how many points of contact is established between the body and the surface, and how changing this behavior depending on the type of slope.

The researchers realized that snakes despite not trickled tilt , but did they got that movement forward. As the slope was steeper, snakes increased the length of its body.

The researchers then rebuilt the movement in the robot , which emulated the ability to successfully . snakes

This perspective, which highlights how scientists found in nature biological principles install robots , manages to develop, thanks to this, new capabilities: more speed, better glide and flight , among others.